Metro Etiquette

Here are some quick metro tips for tourists.

• Do not eat in the metro system. This includes trains, platforms, and the areas in front of the farecard machines. We don't need little critters to start inhabiting our system (any more than they may already be).
• Figure out where you're going before you go. Metro has been kind enough to post their map, and I've even tried to help you use it.
• When going up or down escalators, please stand to the right. Crazy locals like to walk/run on the left.
• When you get to the bottom or top of an escalator, don't stop! The escalator keeps depositing people on the ground, and if you're stopped they have nowhere to go but into you. Move to the side while figuring out which way to go.
• You need your farecard to get in AND out of the metro system. Don't stare down the gates on your way out, wondering why they don't magically open like some other cities.
• If you've got large suitcases or strollers, head for the elevators. Most stations have working elevators, and it keeps you from trying to balance your kid in their stroller on the escalator while above-mentioned crazy locals walk/run on the left.
• Let people exit the train before you get on.
• The pole in the train is not for your kids to swing on, you to wrap your entire body around, or a foot rest. Please just use it to hang on.
• Since it is a weekend, the normal rush hour unwritten rules are relaxed. Feel free to speak on the train. (Yes, we tend to have silent rush hours. I like to believe that we're spending that time mentally solving the world's problems.)
• Become the best-informed metro riding tourist by reading all my postsfor tourists.